The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, November 04, 1885, Image 3
[TIP-END OF YANKEE LAND.
The Extremity of Cape Cod?A Quaint
and Historic Spot.
One of the historic places in America, inferiorin
desert of renown to none, though
comparatively unrecognized, is Provincetown,
at the extremity of Cape Cod, in
Massachusetts bay. Its spacious, deep
and land-locked harbor terminates one
i of the most formidable parts of our Atlantic
coast, -where in a single storm,
?? 1fl"Q tivnntr.nnn -ppocolo
iU X%JKJUy I'llvutj-vuv ff w*v ? *ww?
ed in a space of ten miles. Here, on the
L eleventh of November, lG20,the Mayflower,
after a sixty-six day's voyage, found
temporary refuge, eighteen years after Bartholomew
Gosnold had discovered and
} given its present name to the cape. Here
occurred the first birth in the Pilgrim
Colony, that of Peregrine White, and
the first death, that of Mrs. Marv Bradford,
the Governor's wife, who fell overboard
from the ship. From here the explorations
were conducted, which finally
discovered Plymouth, twenty-five
' - - r xi. _
r miles wesr, on tne opposite s:us ui iuu
| bay, to be the fittest place for settlement.
I ... Close by Provincetown, at Truro, the
explorers, under Captain Standish, disw
covered the deposit of Indian corn,
I which saved the colony from famine.
" But that which chiefly gives the place
historic fame is the birth of American
! republicanism in the civil compact,
which was here framed and signed by
forty-one persons in the cabin of the
Mayflower, just one month before the
landing at Plymouth. From the germ
thus unfolded at Provincetown there
came, in natural development, the Declaration
signed at Philadelphia one hun*
? dred and fifty-six years later. It is intended
ere long to commemorate this
great transaction by a suitable memorial
building on the hill overlooking the
Mayflowers anchorage.
Thoreau called Provincetown the most
maritime of American towns, tnougn
Key West might compete with it for
that distinction. In his intensely realistic
book, "Cape Cod," one can almost
smell the salt, and hear the surf, and
feel the land yielding to his tread. One
1/ who lives far inland finds an experience
worth his journey in walking, withi
Thoreau, along the desolate seashore, far j
from every roof but those of the life-saving
patrol, and by the skeletons of
whales, and fragments of wrecks cast
up by the storms.
; Every night, even in the wildest
Storms, from September to May, this
Shore is traversed by watchers for endangered
vessels, each man walking from
r Eis station to the half-way house, where
he meets a man from the next station,
*" exchanges checks with him, and returns
to the station where he deposits his
check for record of his work.
Mncsfirhnset.tR bav is enclosed bv Cane
j WW W ~ J ~~~ - ' W x |
Ann on the north, all of rock, and Cape
Cod on the south, all of sand. The lat^
ter would seem to have been built out of
the debris of the former, carried along
in a gigantic swirl or eddy of the current
along shore from the north; and such a
theory has been entertained by some
^ geologists. On this sandy soil forests
that have now disappeared nourished a
century ago, and a profitable agriculture
was kept up, but the livelihood of the
population is now more derived from the
sea.
It is a sight worth seeing to watch the
unloading of a schooner from the Grand
banks, returning after four or five months'
t ' ' ? ?-i- n j ? J
aosence wnn nity or sixty tuuusauu uuufish,
every odg caught singly with hook
and line, and as soon as caught, split,
salted and stowed away. These are
* tos3ed up on a hay fork by the dozen
from the hold to the deck, and thence
to the wharf, where they are washed by
a gang in a dory for a tub, then trundled
-r to the shed, where in summer time they
are pickled in huge butts. Thirty
thousand hogsheads of salt, brought
chiefly from the Mediterranean, at about
$1.50 a hogshead, are annually used
here. In the autumn the tish are spread
out to dry on ''flakes," spacious horizonr
tal frames of slats, two or three feet from
the ground, from which, if a rain comes
up, they must be taken in, as if they
were hay. An assemblage of these
"flakes," covering the space of a goodfiized
garden plat, is sometimes spoken
of as a "fish-orchard." There is more
of work and exposure and risk iu the
business than of monev. at the rate of
two cents per pound, and these two or
three years past have been losing years
for the fishermen, who complain that the
retailers get all the profit.
The mackerel fishery is prosecuted
from Provincetown all along shore.
Some of these vessels are of most graceful
build, and, but for their boats towing
astern, might be taken to be pleasure
yachts. The seines used are sometimes
of great size, a quarter of a mile in length
by hundred feet in depth. "When a boat
has pulled one of these so as to enclose
a school of mackerel, it is pursed up
at the bottom, and the fish are transferred
to the deck of the schooner, as
I rapidly as a gang of men can split and
barrel them. In this business also, plentiful
as the mackerel have been, the fishermen
complain that there is for them no
mnnpp r?rrrnpa Vinvinor hppn snM aq lnw
as $2.50 a barrel, half of which goes for
the barrel, salt and cost of inspection.
But where the sea fails to yield a living
in one way, It is made to in another.
Summer visitors come to the cape in large
numbers for its climate and the cool
breezes which from every side blow oil
i from the sea. Every morning a staunch
boat, steaming from Boston fifty miles
southeast to Provincetown, affords the
novelty and excitement of a short ocean
voyage, generally calm enough in summer
to avoid nausea. "Whales are now
and then seen blowing in the bay, and
finTiinir vpqopIq rtrr> fit. thpir tvnrlf
The dreaded rocks of Cohasset, the
scene of many a wreck, and now marked
by inot's light, the Eddystone of
America, are passed fifteen miles from
Boston; then, on the receding shore,
are seen to the south, Marshfield,
where Webster lived, Duxbury
hill, crowned with a tall monument
to the short-statured Pilgrim captain,
Standish.and the high lands of Plymouth
in the dim distance. Then the thin yellow
streak of the Cape emerges from the
Bea, in the midst of which it is anchored
as Tfcoreau say3, by the beach-grass,
which keeps the sand from being blown
away. A quaint and cleanly town of
wooden houses in a curved line three
miles long here crouches under the sandhills
that rise from the beach. The
Btate of Massachusetts holds the title to
I the land, "Province Lands," so-called,
and charges itself with the care of keeping
unimpaired the barriers which the
beach-grass and other vegetation oppose
to the inroads of the sea-sands. Here
dwells a population of about 4,000,
twenty-five per cent, of whom are Portuguese,
as industrious, frugal and
peaceable as any class of immigrants.
It has been from our fishing-towns
that our navy in time of war has been
recruited. Nor is there any class of
those who live by manual labor more intelligent
than the men who wrest their
living from "theunharvcsted sea," and
C&rry life and fortune in their
hands in constant struggle with
the elements. In no community
are there fewer criminals. There has
been but one instance of capital punishment
in the history of the country.
Were the precepts of St. Paul against
the speaking of women in the CorinthiaD
churches, to be regarded as still imperative,
it would be difficult in these cape
towns to maintain the prayer-meeting,
at least in the fishing seasons. A woman
superintends the Sunday school iD
Provincetown, and the Congregational
Year Book reports u woman as ministei
at Dennis.? Chicago Advance.
A Bushman's Cave.
"Weengnged two or three of the natives
as guides," says Mrs. Carey Hobson,
in "At Home in the Transvaal,'"
"and they took us into one of their curious
caves, though I think cave is hardly
the proper name; it is more like aD
enormous fissure in the rocks, with small
caves and shelves in the precipitous
sides. It was a wonderful place, capable
of being garrisoned and provisioned in
time of war, and, one would think, rendered
impregnate.
" 'IIow about the water?' asked Graham.
'Had they a supply in the cave?1
"They had, and a very plentiful supply,
too. We entered the place through
a narrow, zig-zag opening in the rocks,
which almost gave you the idea that you
were going into some tunnel that had
fallen in. All at once we found our
selves in a Deauuiui upuu sijuue, ?ul-io
there were some cattle feeding upon
grass growing luxuriantly on cither sido
of a clear stream of water that ran the
whole length of the chasm.
"We walked along its banks for a
long way, admiring the vegetation,
which was different from any we had
seen outside. Beautiful little fairy ferns
and maidenhair grew in the crevices of
the rocks, making a pretty, lace trimming,
as it were, between the lines of
strata, each side matching so exactly both
in strata and fernwork. as to denote in a
wonderful manner the suddenness with
which the mountain must have been reft
in twain. And in that clear, dry climate,
the rocks looked as bright and
newly-broken as if this cataclysm had
taken place but yesterday. Gradually
we heard more and more distinctly a
roaring noise, that we understood to
come from a fall of water. The rocks
had hitherto been opeu to the sky, although
much nearer to cach other at the
top than below; but at last they closed
entirely, and we were in a dark passage.
Here were rooms or holes for the stores
of grain, and hiding places for their
women and children.
"At the end of this tunnel we came
upon a cascade, falling sheer, from the
mountain summit, through a large round
opening, into the basin below. A mass
of rock jutting out at one side, iust
within the fa 1,intercepted the water,and
sent it dancing wildly in a thousand fantastic
jets of spray, to be sobered down
as they mingled with the long, steady
' - ' i" i. ml
stream oi iamng water, mere ia au immense
quantity of honey in these caves,
and the people collect it from the honey
nests in the interstices of the rock, letting
each other down from above by
means of thongs, or, more generally, by
climbing and clinging among the monkey-rope
that grows luxuriantly in parts.
Our guides also pointed out some curious
rock paintings, the work of the early
Bushman inhabitants."
Wall Street Bears.
Brokers and operators are "bears"
when they have sold stock, and particularly
stock that they did not own, contracting
to deliver it at some future time.
They are then "short of the market."
The disposition of the bear is to pull
things down. The Wall street bear is
often found "gunning a stock" by put_
1. 3 x -
ting lortn au nis sirengm uuu urun
break down the price, and especially
-when aware that a certain house is heavily
loaded and cannot resist his attack. He
"buys in" by purchasing stock to meet
a "short" contract, or to return borrowed
j stock; "covers,"-or "covers- his shorts,"
I by buying stock to fulfill his contract on
the day of delivery. This a self-protective
measure, and iscalled "covering
short sales." A "drop" in the price of
a stock is to a bear the next best thing
to a "break." He rejoices in an "off"
market when prices fall. He "sells
out" a man by forcing down the price of
a stock that the person is carrying so
low that he is obliged to let it
go, and perhaps to fail. He
groans lustily when the bulls get
a "twist on the shorts" by artificially
raising prices, and "squeezing," or compelling
the bears to settle at ruinous
rates. Neither "bull" nor "bear" is an
altogether safe "critter." The latter,
however, is reputed to be about four
times as mischievous as the former, inasmuch
as he sells another man's property,
whereas the bull contents himself with
carrying his own.
The bear occasionally finds himself in a
"corner" where it is impossible to buy
the stock of which he is "short," and
which he must deliver at a specified
time. He growls and begs, but must
pay what the holders of his contracts are
willing to accept. Some relief is afforded
by a "letup," or the withdrawal from
the market of the "clique," or "pool,"
or combination of operators that cornered
him. A "squeal in the pool" is the
revelation of its secrets by one of its
members, and a "leak in the pool" is
when one of the parties sells out his interest
without the knowledge of the
others. Either form of defection yields
some mitigation to the bear's sullenngs.
?Uarjjer's Magazine.
Long Life in Mexico.
The other day an old fellow named
Jose Onoire Ojeda, died over in a town
of the State of Jalisco, aged 115 years,
writes a correspondent of the Boston
Herald. He had been married twice,
| thought seriously of the third wife, when
, death came along to stop his matrimo;
nial schemes. Some time ago an old
! fellow was living at San Miguel de Allendc,
aged 135 years, a man still vigorous.
The records of the parish church
I confirm his claims to a great age. Not
I long ago, down in the pretty little tropi,
cal village of Orizaba, there died an old
I woman aged 140 years, and a few months
ago a woman named Martina Riviera died
! here at the age of 150 years, a fact thoroughly
attested. The Indians have a provI
erb that their hair is black when that of the
Spaniards is growing gray. A local paper
noted the other day the case of the Indian,
Juan Santiag, who died in 1844,
at the age of 143 years. This old chap
left two dependent grandchildren, both
aged men, whose years were respectively
I 111 and 109 years. The grandfather
married as the Indians do, very young,
and it is not surprising that he should
have left descendants who were themselves
centenarians.
The secret of this extraordinary longevity
among the Indians is their simple diet
! and regular habits. They themselves
j say that when an Indian goes into service
i and eats the food of the white man the
! Indian's teeth begin to decay. Their
J perpetual grinding on tortillas keeps
j their teeth white and the lime in the torilla
makes teeth bone.
There are 7o0.000 more Methodists
than Baptists in the United States.
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.
There were 7,000.000 inhabitants ii
Rome in the days of Emperor Hadrian
In Genoa the policemen wear silk hati
and carry silver-headed walking-sticks
Among the negroes of the Carolins
coast telling ghost stories is a favorit<
"1 ..V _ _ J I j
amusement, auci me stories uru uui
spoken, but chanted with a flavor of ex
altation.
An ordinary hen's egg weighs fron
one and one-half to two ounces; a duck's
two to three ounces; a turkey's, three t<
four ounces, while that of a goose weigh
from four to six ounces.
In ancient times the carrying of th<
four-leaved clover was believed to brinj
luck in play and busiress, safety on i
journey and the power of detecting evi
spirits. In Germany the clover was helt
almost sacred, wnetner u naa two o
four blades.
The Seven Dials is a celebrated locali
ty in St. Giles', London, formerly noto
torious-for its degraded condition, bu
now much improved. It was so namec
from a pillar, removed in 1773, bearing
a seven-faced dial, and standing at th<
point of divergence of seven streets.
A wreath of laurel or olive leaves, i
small quantity of oil, a tripod or othe:
similar rewards of victory, as prizes ii
the athletic games of Olympia, Delphi
Nemea and Athens, conferred alraos
divine honor in Greece, even the year
being known by the temporary hero o
Olympia.
G. L. Thomas, of Albany, N. Y., i
said to own the largest mastiff in thi
world. His name is Senator, his age i
thirteen month's, weight 100 pounds
licighth 35J inches over the withers
length from tip of nose to end of tai
seven feet eight inches, and he is valuet
at $1,500.
Crabs thoroughly dried in a hot ovci
and then pulverized are used as medi
cine in a malarial locality in Ivharkoi
government in Russia. A teaspoonful i
regarded as a dose, effective in mos
T'V.Ja *-v/\TTT/3nr ia iicorl 11
Laocs, xuio j>/vnuwi 4B %?ww? ..
preference to quinine, preceded invaria
bly with a glas9 of aloe brandy.
"Why are barrels painted? Because
sharp fellow, having noticed the leak
ing of oil through wood, painted a bar
rel blue on the outside and then tilled i
with water and allowed it to stand unti
it had soaked up all it would. Thei
the oil was put in. The water kept th
oil from soaking into the wood, and th
paint on the outside kept the water fror
coming out.
The largest cheese ever manufacture!
in this country has been made at Eas
Aurora, N. Y. It wa? ordered by
prominent grocer of Buffalo, who, dui
ing the process of manufacture, thre^
ten five-dollar gold pieces into the lac
teal mass. Its weight is 3,300 pounds
The milk was taken from 2,600 cows
and it took three hundred hands to mill
them. An excursion of between fou
hundred and five hundred promincn
citizens left Buffalo and was present t
witness the novel ceremony of construct
ing: so Luge a mass of cheese. Si
cheese, weighing from 1,500 to 3,00
pounds, were made in the same factor
for an English firm, which will offe
them for sale during Christmas week i
London and Liverpool.
An Orchard of 26,000 Peach Trees
Mr. Mcllroy Jackson is the elder c
two brothers, who are known a!
through the peach districts of Delaware
Maryland peninsula, as "the Jackso
boys." Gilder Jackson i3 the othe
brother. Twenty years ago they wen
boys in Kent county without a penny'
worth ot property to their names. 2ioi
thev have a fortune that is popularly es
timatedjat a good many thousands of dol
lars. They have made it all out c
peaches. Their good fortune has beei
phenomenal. Gilder is on a farm nea
Magnolia, which, under his management
has increased wonderfully iu worth til
it is rated as the most valuable piece o
real estate in that part of the Stat<
Mcllroy is on another farm, owned b
the firm, near Harrington, which i
worth a good many dollars more an acr
than the property of his neighbors. Bu
the "boys" have made an investmen
wihch outreaches anything of the soi
ever yet known in Delaware. Near Mil
ford they have bought a big tract of land
the combination of two or three farm:
covering in ail about 300 acres, and thi
fall the Messrs. Jackson, who have put:
tenant in charge to look after affairs ur
der their direction, will begiu to set on
a peach orchard far larger than any othc
orchard iu this country. This fall, nes
nnrinrr And nr>xfc fall tliev will lllant 25
-rm?n? j 5
acres in peach trees. "With ail averag
of 105 trees to the acre this will giv
their orchard a total of over 20,000 trees
It is their plan to includc about twenty
five varieties of peaches. They have ex
tensive nurseries of their .own from whic
they will choose the young trees wit!
which they will cover their big tratfl
This farm is further down in the stat
than the peach centre now lies, but th
Messrs. Jackson are convinced that th
peach belt is rapidly moving southward
and they believe that within a few years
in three years at most, when the nei
orchard will come into the period c
bearing, the best fruit producing regio
will be closc at hand.?New York Timet
The Fatal State Department.
The state department, which at th
hponnninor nf nur rmvnrnmnnt was lookei
?r> "?o ~
upon as the stepping stone to the pres
dency, became later on singularly fats
to the ambitions of almost" every ma
who took charge of it, and its possessio
in many cases has been the forcruunc
of disaster, disease and death. Upshui
one of Tyler's secretaries of state, ws
blown up on the Princeton while he wa
in office, and Hugh S. Lcgare, the secr(
tary of state who preceded Upshur, die
at Boston at the celebration of th
Bunker Hill monument, which ho wa
attending with the President in his ce
pacity as secretary. Daniel Webstei
while acting as Fillmore.s secretary c
state, was in 1852 thrown from his cai
riage and there received the iujurie
which caused his death the folio win
Octobcr. Secretary William II. Sewan
never recovered fully from the blow c
the assassin Payne, which he received o
the night Lincoln was killed, and hi
r\Alt+i/>ol fnhiro troa ininrnrl hv Vila nnn
I'UU"VU1 '"J"? ~J
uection with Johnson in the state dc
partment in the following adrainistrt
tion. James G. Blaine narrowly cs
caped receiving Guiteau's bullet whe
he was walking down to the depot an
in arm with President Garfield to see hir
oil to Long Branch. Had Ilenry Cla
not accepted the state portfolio fror
John Quincy Adams the "bargain" am
"corruption" cry would never have bee
i raised, and Clay would probably no
have died disappointed in his am'bitio
i to be President. John C. Calhoun'
future was largely affected by the fight
i he had while secretary of state,by whic
he became estranged from Jackson an
his party, and Marcy and Cass droppe
out of the state department into exis'
i ing nonentitvness.?Cleveland (Ohi<
Leader.
TEMPERANCE TOPICS,
1 Tlie Ecad March.
, Tramp, tramp, tramp, in lha drunkard's
way
March the feet of a million men;
i If none shall pity and none shall save,
? "Where will the march they are making
l end ?
The young, the strong, and the old are there,
In woeful ranks as they hurry past,
Ivvitn not a mulueub lu wiii& ui wc,
What is tho fate that come3 at last,
, Tramp, tramp, tramp, to a drunkard's doom,
3 Out of a boyhood pure and fair?
Over the thoughts of love and homePast
the chock of a mother's prayer;
Onward swift to a drunkard's crime,
> Over tho piea of wife and child,
y Over tho holiest ties of time?
5 Reason dethrone J, and soul3 gone wild.
; ?Alary T. Latiirop, in the Bulletin.
i What the Tcmpcranco Cau?e Hav
r Done* "*
Rev. Newman Hall, of London, has
beautifully said of the temperance cause:
t It is "an enterprise that has fed the hun.
1 gry, and clothed the naked, ana iicaiea
= tne sick, and taught the ignorant, and
elevated the degraded, and gladdened
j the sorrowful, and led to the cross mulr
titudes that had been wandering far
i away; an enterprise that lia3 gathered
' ajjain the fortune that had been scatt
s tered, and built again the home that had
f been ruined, and raised again the character
that had been blasted, and bound
3 up again the heart that had been broken;
0 an enterprise that has given peace where
there was discord, and gladness where
' there had been woe, that has broken
) # 1
1 open many a prison door, and restored
* to his right mind many a maniac; an enterprise
that has prevented many a sui1
cide, and that has robbed the galIow3 of
3 many a victim that would otherwise
s have been there; an enterprise that has
t thinned the work-house, and the hos
a pital, and the jail, but that ba9 helped |
to fill the school, and the lecture-room,
and the industrial exhibition; an enterprise
that has turned into useful citizens
- those that were the pests of society?
t one of the best educators of the masses,
'* one of the very chief pioneers of the
g Gospel, an enterprise which is not Christ,
e but which is one of the holy angels that
a go upou his mission. Like some fair
spirit from another world, our great en^
terpri8e has trodden the wilderness, and
* flowers of beauty have sprung up upon
.. her track. She has looked around,gladv
dening nil on whom her smiles have fal
len;she has touched the captive, and
his fetters have fallen off; she ha3
i '
? apoken, and the countenance of despair
r has been lighted up with hope; waved
t her magic wand, and tho wilderness has
0 rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.
? Like the fabled Orpheus, she ha3
0 warbled her song of mercy, and wild
y beasts, losing their ferocity, have folr
lowed gladly and gratefully in her
n train. She has raised up thoss who ;
have been worse than dead, sepulchred
in sin, and she has led multitudes to the
' living waters of salvation.
if
Eyils of Lager Beer.
!- The chemis; of the Brooklyn health
11 department has been investigating some
r of the beer sold in that city, and hasarg
rived at results that are anything but rejf
assuring to those who drink it. He re
ports, in the first placc, that the common
j practice of drawing beer through bra93
a or copper faucets is highly injurious to
x the consumer. The melal becomes corroded,
and deposits of it are found in
^ the liquid in quantities large enough to
[ be dangerous. This danger is small,
v however, compared to others which the
s beer drinker undergoes. Dr. Bartlcy goes
e on to speaK ot "tue practice, so common
with some brewers, of adding bicarbonit
?
,t ate of soda to the beer, so as to make it
- foam when drawn. Two ounces of the
I, drug are compressed into a cartridge and
'? dropped into the keg at the time of filling.
a Thirty glasses of beer thus charged will
[. contain nearly three teaspoonfu's of
it aoda." Further than this, he finds that
,r most of the beer made in Brooklyn is
q sent out from the brewery in about
e fourteen days after ths brewing, and is
e necessarily unwholesome. It is a little
strange if Dr. Bartley found 110 other
adulteration in the beer uf Brooklyn than
^ bicarbonate of soda. As the readers of
fcl trie JU.HU (l'III Ih-CjJrtiss icuicLuuci, uu
t. inrestigation made by us nearly three
e years ago showed that various noxious
? drugs were used by brewers to impart a
[ bitter taste to the beer, to counteract
J, its constipating influence, and to "age"
n it. Among these substances were aloes,
^ quassia and. nux vomica.?New York Mail
and Express.
Liquor Statistic*.
The consumption of liquor in thiscounc
try is officially reported by the authoriJ
-4. rv+ ?n oo nmAtinfinff trt
U. Lies EftU TT asiuu^bvu uo uuawuuvauq ?V
i* 69,156,903 gallons of spirits, 19,185,953
lq barrels of fermented liquor, and 20,508,n
345 gallons of wine. Estimating the
ir population at about 58,000,000, the av '?
erage consumption appears to be about
g 1.2 gallons of whisky for each person
yearly, over 10.25 gallons of beer, and
d .35 of a gallon of wine. The quantity
e of beer consumed appeals to be about
;S 595,000,000 gallong. In other words,
the people of this favored land drink
>f about two gallons of liquor for every
bushel of wheat that they consume?a
:9 striking text for our temperance friends.
?JSew TorJc Tribune.
,f
j* Temporal!ce Topics*
is Water is the changer of the earth;
l" rum is the changer of mankind.
Eighty-eight in-??jn.rut*.* companies in
j. England h iv> n total abstinence departn
mi'iit and give premium, in some shape,
n to that class.
The Adams Express Company forbids
n the use of liquor to its employes. The
:1 Chicago, Burlington and (Juincy R. 11.
n will not eveu permit them to board
where liquor is sold.
1 am acquainted with a man who be3
came utterly broken down from driuk,
h but took the pledge and kept it for ten
^ years. At the end of this time he was
t swept back by simply seeing his clergyman
take one glass of wine.?Colonel T
IF. Ilifjginson.
DR. TMJAGE'S SERMON.
THE HIRED RAZOR."
Text: "In the same day shall the Lord
have with a razor that is hired, namely, by
them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria."
Isaiah vii., 20.
The Bible is the boldest book ever written.
The similitudes in Ossian, in the Iliad, in the
Odyssey, are not half so daring. The imagery
of the Bible sometimes seems on the verge of
the reckless, but only seems eo. The fact is
that God would startle, arouse and propel
men and nations in the right direction, and
tame and limping similitude will not do tne
work. Sometimes we find in the Bible illustrations
drawn from the gentle dew, and the
morning cloud, and the dove, and the daybreak,
and the rose, and the lily; but often
we find illustrations drawn from the iron
chariot, and the lightning, and the storm,
aud the earthquake, and the sword, and the
spear, and, in ray text, the razor. This sharpedged
instrument has advanced in usefulness
with the ages. In Bible times the beard remained
uncut except in times of great
mourning and humiliation; but the razor has
always been a significant illustration. David
fays of Doeg, his antagonist, "thy tongue is
like a sharp razor, working deceitfully;"
that is, while it pretends to clear the face, it
makes deadly incision. In my morning's
text, this domestic implement is employed
amid the following circumstances:
Judah must have its pride and
glory cut down. God sends against it
three Assyrian generals. First, Sennachareb,
then Esarheddon, then Nebuchadnezzar.
These three invasions cut across the land,
brineiner down its Drosneritv. and it is com
pareS to so many sweepings with a razor
across the face of Judah. The circumstances
in the t?xt are compared to a hired razor because
God employed the Assyrian kin^s,
with whom He had no sympathy, to do His
work, paying for that work in palaces and
spoils and annexations. God hired these
kings to execute the divine behest. So you
see that though at the first reading of the
text it might have seemed almost trivial and
inapt.now the text is charged with thoughts of
stupendous import and moment. "In the same
day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is
hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by
the king of Assyria." Well, if God's judgments
are razors, we had better l:e careful
how we use them on other people. These
useful implements are encased, and they are
put beyond the reach of childhood, and they
are put where no accident can touch them.
Everybody understands that a razor, if
handled at all must bo cautiously handled.
And yet, how many men there are who take
the judgments of God, which are in my text
compared to razors, and deal with them very
carelessly, and very recklessly. There is a business
man who goes down. How many people
there are ready to cry out: ''That is a judgment
of God upon the fact that he was unscrupulous,
that he was arrogant, that he
was miserly, that he was extortionate. What
a keen stroke of Providence it was that took
him down. His city house gone, his country
house gone, all his stables emptied of the fine
* 1- J 1 iL.i. . 1 4 ^
grays ana so ire is ana uays uiau useu iu
prance at his doorway. All his resources cut
off. Thrown into comp'iote demolition. Good
for him!" My brother, be careful how you
handle the Lord's razors. Sometimes the
wicked have great prosperity, and they live
and die in prosperity, and many an honest
and conscientious man has Leen driven into
bankruptcy. Perhaps the man is unfortunate
in his manner and is not as proud as you think
be is, for some men havo a natural way of
being very erect, and they have an imperial
manner when at the samo time they are as
humble as a little child; and there is rnanv a
man who goes with seedy coat and slouched
hat and unblackened shoes who is proud as
Lucifer. You cannot tell by any man's looks.
Perhaps the man of whom you speak was not
unscrupulous in his dealings, for there are two
sides to every question, and if a man achieve
f/M* for nf.linrc Via n 1.
lllljr LLllll? ^ICOU AVI luiuovu Wl VVMW*^ MW M.
ways geta industriously lied about! Perhaps
that man's business misfortune was not sent
as a punishment, tub as fatherly discipline
by -which he is to be prepared for heaven,
and God may really love that unfortunate
business man more than He loves you wbo
can pay dollar foe dollar, and whose name in
the commercial catalogue stands AL "Whom
the Lord loveth he giveth $400,000 a year, and
lets die on an embroidered pillow. No; I have
misquoted the passage. "Whom the Lor"1
loveth He chasteneth." Better keep your
hands off the Lord's razors. If you want to
jhave off some of the bristling pride of your
own heart and life, do so, but look out how
you put the sharp edge ou 'others. I cannot
tell how much I dislike the behavior of those
people who, when any one is unfortunate, always
say: "Just as I expected. I told you
so. Why, didn't you know that before?
Why, I knew that long ago!" If these I told
you so's had had their dessert they would
have been in hell long ago! They have
more trouble":'- about the mite, the mote
ir a neighbor's eye, though you havo to
use a microscope to discover it, than
they have about the shiptimber that obscures
oheir optics. They have an air sometimes
supercilious and sometimes Pharisaical and
always blasphemous, with which they tako
the razor of God's judgments and try to
harpen it on the hone of their own hard
hearts, ana tnen wnen tney cau gee a man
sprawled out in disaster they begin to cut
mercilessly. They first begin with words of
sympathy and pity and half pmis?, and put
the lather on thick before they begin with the
sharp edge. Better look out how you shoot
at others lest you bring down the wrong one,
as when the servant of King Willian Kutns
shot at a deer, but the arrow glanced from a
tree and killed the king, Instead of going at
Tne world with sharp shafts that pierce, and
razors that cut. let u& go out into th? world
with the spirit of the friend of Richard
Coeur de Lion, who in'the war of the crusades
was captured and imprisoned and his friend
did not know where he was imprisoned. This
friend went from fortress to fortress and from
penitentiary to penitentiary and sang at every
window a verse of a song which Richard in
nfiior Hoiro imH tnncht him Coming1 to a win
dow of a prison where he supposed Richard
might be incarcerated he sang two lines of
the hymn, and from inside tho wall Richard
sang "the other two lines, and so his whereabouts
were discovered and prompt and successful
movement was made for his liberation.
Ob, my friends, let us go forth in tho
world with the music of kind words and
sympathetic hearts, serenading the unfortunate
and trying to help out of trouble noble
creatures that by unforseen circumstances
have been incarcerated, and so we will be
liberating kings, kings. More hymn books
and less razors.
Especially ought we be apologetic and merciful
toward those, who, though they have
great faults, have also great virtues. Some
men barren of faults are also barron of virtues.
No weeds, verily, but no flowers. I
must not be too much engaged at a nettle
which I find in the field near the fence when
in that same field there are forty acees of ripe
Michigan wheat Scientists say now there is
a spot on tho sun 20,000 miles long, but from
the warmth and brightness to-day I think it
is|considerable of a sun yet! The sun can afford
to have a very large spot upon it, though it
be 20,000 miles long. And i am very
apologetic for thoso men who
have great faults, while at the same
time they have magnificent virtues.
My subject also impresses me with the fact
as I road "tho Lord shall shave with a razor,"
that God's dealings have great precision. A
razor carelessly swung the tenth part of an
inch out of the right line means either failure
or laceration. God's razor has not slipped
the thousandth part of an inch in a thousand
years. Precision. Oh, I hear people talk
every day as though things in this world
were nt looso ends. Cholera sweeps over
Marseilles and Palerino and Madrid, and we
all wonder if it is coming to America, ana 11
it is going across Europe. "Well, that entirely
depends," says some one, "upon the
quarantine regulations." "Well, that entirely
depends," says some one, "on whether inoculation
is a successful experiment." "Well,"
says some one, "that entirely depends upon
whether we have an early or late frost"
Cholera iust tumbled into the world and it
goes rolling over tho nations, and it is all
guesswork as to where it shall strike, and it
is awful and appalling perhaps. Has it over
occurred to you that God may have
had something to do with it; that perhaps
His mercy may have protected us: that perhaps
uoiv we really may bo as much indebted
to tho Lord as wo aro to tho quarantine and
the health officers. It was right that we |
should have continued precaution, but there
has coino enough maccaroni from Italy and
enough grapes from South France, and
enough rags from foreign tellerdemalions,
and thore might have beonin these articles of
transportation onough cholera germs to have
sent all Brooklyn weeping to Greenwood,and
all Philadelphia weeping to Laurel Hill, and
all Boston weeping to Mount Auburn. I thank
the doctors, I thank tho quarantine officers;
but more than all, and first of all, and last
of all, and all the time, I thank God. PreS
cision, precision or Providence. la tho G.OOJ
rears of the world's existence there has never
been one event that merely happened so.
God is not an anarchist, but a father as well
as a king. Little Tad, son of President Lincoln,
died, and all the land wa3 sympathetic
with that sorrow in the White House. That
lad used to run into the cabinet session, and
he saw his father and the eminent men of
the land discuss the questions of national existence.
God is dealing like a razor skillfully swung,
cutting that which ought to be cut and avoiding
that which ought to be avoided Timepieces
often strike wroner, and they strike one
when it is two and they strike two when it
is three; but God's clock always strikes rightly,
and when it is twelve it strikes twelve,
and when it is one it strikes one, and the seoond-hand
is as accurate as the minute-hand.
I preach no fatalism. I preach good government,
fatherly government, divine government.
Precision. Precision to a hair-breadth.
That is the teaching of my text.
But I find also in my text that the Lord
sometimes shows motives. "In the same day
shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired."
With one cut he went clear across the land erf
Judah. In 1862 God shaved this nation. We
had allowed to grow in this country oppression,
Sabbath-breaking, fraud, uncleanness.
and all forms of turpitude. The North had
its sins, the South had its sins, the East had
its sins and the West had its sins. God
warned us, but we did not heed. Then the
sword of war came and cut clear through
from tho St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and from
the Atlantic beach to the Pacific. The pride
of the land, not the oowardice, but the heroes
on both sides went down. We thought it was
the sword of war. No, it was the Lord's
razor. In 1863 it swept across the land again,
? J_ * 1 i.1 4.U .
in loos again, m j.000 uguui, uua uucu uu?
terrible instrument was put up and put away.
But, my friends, if we ao not quit our inai*
vidual and national sins the Lord may again
take us in hand. He has other razors beside
the razor of war. Epidemic, flood, draught,
plague, locust and grasshopper, or our over
towering prosperity as a nation may excite
the jealousy of all the great nations of Europe
and of Asia, and if all the great nations
of Europe and Asia in jealousy against
us should corao up, what a power! Our nation
is so easily approached from the north,
and so easily approached from the south, and
so easily approached from the Atlantic beach
and from the Pacific beach, that if the great
nations of Europe and Asia should rise up,
what a hostility 1 Insulted China, outraged
Cbina, the wealthiest land on earth, as shall
be proved when her resources are fully developed?China,
insulted Cbina, will, after a
while, have all the modes of modern warfare,
and may at the Golden Gate be discussing the
question whether Americans must go! I pray
God there never may be such a combination
of the great nations of Europe and Asia
against us; but I only say this to show you
that as Assyria was the hired razor against
Judah, and as Cyrus was the hired razor
against Babylon, and as the Huns were the
liirivl form, norftinct.f.ho sn ftnd maV filld
a hired razor with which to chastise us if we do
not give up our individual sins our national sins
and turn unto the Lord. In 1870 Germany was
the hired razor with which the Lord shaved
France. England will be the hired razor with
which the Lord will shave Russia. But nations
sometimes repent, nations will repent in
a day, and I pray God that by a sudden coming
together of all nations, of all lands on both
sides the Atlantic, all national calamities
may be averted the world over. But do not
let us by unrighteous enactment at Washington,
or by baa lives among ourselves defy the
Almighty. One would think that our national
symbol, the eagle, might sometimes
suggest to us another eagle, the eagle that
ancient Rome carried as its staudard. That
eagle, that Roman eagle atone time clutched
in its talons Britain, France, Spain, Italy,
Dalmatia, Rhoetia, Novicum, Pannoma,
Moesia, Dacia, Syria, Greece, Asia Minor,
Thrace, Datra, Marcedonia, Phoenicia, Palestine,
Egypt, all Northern Africa, all the
Islands of the Mediterranean?indeed, all the
earth that was worth having. One hundred
and twenty millions of subjects under the
wings of that one eagle. Where is she now i
Ask Gibbon, the historian, in his prose poem
"Toe Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
Ask her gigantic ruins, straggling their sadness
across the centuries; the screech-owl at
tho windows from which the eonauerors of
the whole earth looked out. Ask the Day of
Judgment when her crowned debauchers,
commanders and Pertinal and Caligula and
Diocletian shall be called to# answtr for
their infamy. Oh, as individuals and as nations
let us repent and depend upon a pardoning
God rather than upon any past success as
an immunity. Of fourteen of the greatest
battles of the world Napoleon had lost only
one before he lost Waterloo. Pride goeth before
destruction, and they often ride in the
same saddle.
Once more, and more than all, I want you
to notice in this text that God is so loving
and so kind that when it is necessary to cut
He has to go to others to get the edged, the
sharpest edged weapon. "The Lord shall
shave with a razor that is hired." God is
love, God is pity, God is help, God is shelter,
God is rescue. If you want.balm for wounds,
Ho has it. If you want salve for blind eyes,
He has that. If you want a helping hand,
He bos that. But He has no sharp edges
about Him, no thrusting points, no instrument
of laceration. When in His Providence
it is a dire necessity that He cut, He goes to
others to get the sharp edged weapon. The
Lord shaves with a razor that is hired. Ah!
this divine geniality is no surprise to you
who have pondered the Calvarian massacre,
whoro God submerged Himself in human
tears and crimsonod Himself from punctured
arteries,and allowed the terrestrial world and
the infernal world to maul Him until it was
necessary to turn out the chandelier of the
sky, because the universe could not staud the
inrlHrancv. Illustrious love that must have
been that brought Him out as our substitute,
and caused Him out of the blood of His heart
to pay the crimson price for our admission at
the selestial gate. Henry II. crowned his
/>wn son, and on the day of coronation the
king, the father, put on the garb of a servant
and waited at the table, and waited upon his
son, and all the princes were amazed. But
i hear the more wondrous story that the king
of beaven and earth this day offers you, His
child, a crown of life, and offers as a servant
to bear your blessing. Install that love with
everything best in painting, in sculpture, in
music, in architecture, in worship. In Dresdenian
gallery let Raphael hand Him up as a
child, and in Antwerpian gallery let Rubens
hand him down from the cross as a martyr,
and let Handel mako all his oratorios vibrate
around that one chord. He was wounded for
our transgressions and He was bruised for
our iniquities, bat not until all the redeemed
i??v,,i fpAm th? mountains of
L'llUlt) uuiug anu ?v>u
the piled up galleries of the ransomed shall
be reflected the wonders of redemption
not until then shall man or seraph, or archangel
understand the height, the depth, the
length, the breadth of the love of Goa. The
monument in the capital to the one who did
more than any other man for the achievement
of our "American independence- that
monument was going up at the capital scores
and scores of years, and many of us were
discouraged about it, and said the work would
never be done; but whon at last in the presence
of the officials of the nation, that monument
was pronounced as completed, how glad
we all were. But my friends, the monument
| to Him who suffered for the eternal liberation
of the human race will never be comI
pleted. It has been going up for many ages,
j this monument. Exangelists and apostles
{ and martyrs have added to the heavenly pile,
j Everyone of the millions of souls gone up to
elorv has made contribution of gladness.
Weight and glory swings to th*. ?op of weight
. and glory. Layer of hosanna on layer of
hosanna. Higher and higher up as the centuries
go by, higher and higher up as whole
miUftniuma Dass. Sapphire on the top of
jacinth, sardonyx on the top of chalcedony,
chrysoframs on the top of topaz, until far beneath
are domes and towers and walls and
the great capital, the monument forever and
forever, rising yet never, never done, unto
Hira who hath loved us and washed ua from
our sins in His own blood and made us kings
and priests unto God and the lamb. Hallelujah,
ameu!
GROW.X.
Sho is a woman grown, to-day;
It seems but yestermorn
That she lay sleeping in my arms
A tiny babe, just born.
And now she's grown to womanhood,
To beauty rare, my pet:
Her heart is 'stowed upon young Joan
And his upon Janet.
I nope tnat int'ji uuij utr,
But, oh, it grieves me sore
That she?my babe 'til yesterevo?
"Will be my babe no more.
She is a woman grown to-day,
Yet scarcely out her teens;
Too soon, too soon my child is grown,
Too soon her heart is Jean's.
?Flora N. Montgomery.
MORNING SONG. J
Turn thy face to me, my love, I
I come from out the morning;
r.irn +h-cr Vmnri to ma mtr lnvo
I'm dewy from the dawning. j|
Touch my lips with thine, my lore, * 'M
I've tasted air at daybreak;
Gaze into my eyes, my love, 1
At the sky's waking they wake. |
Oh, golden wave upon thy brow, g
Oh, color of thy smiling; I
Oh, glance of eyes that like the stars
Lead through the world's beguiling!
?HarperWeekly
RELIGIOUS READING, .8
Doofdlns-Doinsi a
It is always well when one decides -V.IeM
to do a right thing. But decision by
Itself alone is worthless. Decision 1
must be followed by doing, or nothing I
is accompnsnea. iu? pruuigui w mo
far-off land among the swine said, "I J
will arise and go to my father." That ^
was a right decision, one that it would . ?|
have been grievously foolish and
wrong for him not to make. But that 4
decision, by itself alone, still left him I
in the far-off land among the swine. I
It was when the decision was followed j
by doing that "he arose and came to ; '3^
his father," leaving the land of his |||
misery and the brutish companions of - 41a
his hunger behind him. j
A great deal is gained when tho 1
convicted sinner decides to turn to J
Christ. Until that decision there is I
no hope of pardon. It is a decision |
reached under the impulse of the di- j^S
vtna Grkirlt ?"NTn man ran sav that .
Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost." It is the great preliminary
step. But there must be the doing of j
what is involved in the decision, or it |
is void. The prodigal must set out on j
his journey, as well as decide to ariso
There is in some casos great , danger
that men will rest in what they call 4||
their decisions, and not take the nec- I
j essary steps which those decisions in- |
volve. The result is, of course, disastrous.
It is not enough to resolve
to be a Christian. One must be a . 1
Christian. That is to say, firmly resolving,
in humble dependence upon
divine grace, to live the life of a
child of God, the believer must go* for- <f|
ward d%y by day doiDg his Heavenly
Father's will. The Christian life does^jJe^S|
not consist in mer? resolutions, though ^
they may be the beginning. The . . -I'M
Christian life is living. j
There may be some of our readers \
who are thinking seriously of their '/A
souls' condition. They may be wish- ,|$1
ing that they were Christians. ros- :.~*a
sibly they have got so far as to resolve |
to be Christians. But the work is not ?
complete till, day by day and duty by ~
duty, they are living the Christian life. ,&afi
Resolutions, decisions even, that Qpd
in themselves, are useless?worse than _ ^
useless, because sometimes proving the ^
flatterers.that lull and bind conscience. i
If they are to avail, they must lead to vvjlH
action. If you say, '*1 will arise and
go to my father," let it also and im- iql
mediately be said of you, "And h$
arose and came to his Father."?Messenger.
+<
The City or God.
My friends, it is a sweet and lofty
thought that, if we are Christian disciples,
sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty, we need not fear lest the |
good promised for us in the Scripture .
should not be realized. I think we do
fear it. We believe that there may be -?
advancement there to the society of elect
spirits, and larger knowledge andsweeter
purity, but when we read of
the wonders of the heavenly city, it
seems impossible that they can bo for
us. Unreal they seem; fantastic, fan- :
ciful, a poetic dream, and not descriptions
of a transcendent and tangible
fact. We sometimes see some image
of the city of God in the splendor of
the sunset. We sometimes seem to ^ ^
catch just a glimpse, but it disappears,
and we come back to the thought that '"*<3
it is too vast and too glorious to be
such as that. O my friends, but re- ;v?|
membe.' that it is the city which God .'-y
hath prepared for them that love I
him. And then let the energy of human
action encourage us. How men pre- ?^
pare their cities! "With what lavish
expenditure of thought, and labor,and
treasure, and life, to build the piers
and palaces along the shores and the ' I
-~j * ?
great streets or warenouses, auu temples
for their worship, and the libralies,
and the galleries, and the public
halls, till at last you have Venice on
her lagoons, Queen of the Adriatic,
beautiful as a dream, solid as mountains;
Naples along her placid bay.
Home along her seven hills, Florence
on the Arno, Vienna on the Danube,
Paris, London, the great metropolis of
the English-speaking peoples of the
world,with treasure hoards immeasurable.
How men have prepared this
city we are now in. After the great
> fire what sumptuous and splendid resi- - ?
dences, what" rehabitations for your
traffic! Shall God, then, not adorn a
city by his omnipotence? With the instrumentalities
at his command what
shall it not bel I do not marvel that
all conceiveable beauties are there
blended and combined.
I do not marvel at any description
of the palaces, since it is he'that
buildeth the city. The texts which
seems to have fallen from the sky like
fragments from the jasper walls and
the golden pavements, and that Hash
before mo as I read them with
almost blinding refulgence, do not tell
me too much of that city
of God. No, rather I get my brightest
visions of it not from any texts,
but from the cross of Christ. I know
the glory above is to be measured by
Vi/i nirtftm nf Pflluurv T knnw that*.
tUC ^IVVUi Vfc 'I - ??
that transcendent sacrifice was for an
end so august and immortal that it
passes all computation and transcends
all human thought They have the
gates of pearl and the streets of translucent
gold, and the sea of glass
mingled with fire, and the rainbow
like a halo roundabout the throne.
They are all real to me because God
has built them. My friends, the ex- ?
pectation of that, let it be the inspiration
of our life; the fulfillment of that
trust, let it be the glory of our immortality.
Let every one of us be so
earnest and alive in God's service in the
earth that we may join in the worship
and the songs of that immortal city,
and forever and forever more as we
enter into its berfect blessedness our ^
words shall be in that heavenly consummation,
the words of him who v
spake in the Hebrew tongue, "This is
the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in
our eyes."?Kev. Dr. Starrs.
J